My MBA with SSD 124 seems to overheat quit frequently. It happens most often when any youtube, internet video or other grafic material is running. Is there any easyfix for this?
Warning. If you do have this problem to, do not install MobileME. Since it will almost kill your MBA!!!!
I love my Macbook Air, but it will not work with the mobile broadband from 3. Any one knows what need to be done? Got my 3 USB broadband last week (Feb 09).
“Koobface” is the name of the Trojan worm that’s been making its way through the social networking site Facebook lately, but to the site’s users, it’s been simply known as “the Facebook virus.” That name will soon become a misnomer, though, because the worm is now spreading outside of Facebook’s walls to attack other social networks like Bebo, MySpace, Friendster, MyYearbook, and Blackplanet.
About Koobface
Once a computer has become infected with the Koobface worm, it spams the friends belonging to the owner of the computer by leaving comments on their profiles. Those comments appear to come from the infected user, saying things like “Are you sure this is your first acting experience?”, “is it u there?”, “impressive. i’m sure it’s you on this video”, “How can anyone get so busted by a spy camera?” and “You’re the whole show! i’m admired with you.” Save for that last one, whose bad English will likely raise a flag that all is not what it seems, the other comments appeal to people’s vanity. They wonder: is that really a video of me? and then click through on the link provided.
The link actually takes them to an off-site page which pretends to offer a video download from “YuoTube,” but then stalls saying that you’ll need a new version of Adobe’s Flash Player installed in order to continue. Of course, if you click the button to proceed with the install, you’re infected. Infected users are then directed to even more contaminated web sites when they try to use search engines, which puts them at risk of identity theft, among other things. “Search terms are directed to find-www.net,” said McAfee’s Craig Schmugar, and that “enables ad hijacking and click fraud.”
Social Networks Will Be the New Breeding Ground for Viruses
Koobface may not be the first bit of malware to hit the social networks, but it has become so widespread that it now accounts for one percent of ScanSafe’s blocked malware, said ScanSafe senior security researcher Mary Landesman. (Facebook will not disclose how many members are infected.)
What’s frightening about the spread of this Trojan is not the worm itself – it’s really nothing new in terms of malware – but the way its being spread. Over the years people have learned to be suspicious of unknown links and attachments in their emails, so the virus writers turned to hit us where we’re more vulnerable: on our social networks. Here, many people still have a feeling of comfort and security. They don’t always have their guard up.
According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, “a key factor which helps social-networking spam and malware succeed is that people are more prepared to click on a link or message if they believe it is from someone they know. The average person is used to receiving unsolicited e-mails in their regular inbox, but believe messages have more credence when they arrive via Facebook. The message is clear — people need to beware.”
Cluley also warns that the situation is going to get worse next year. There will be more attacks and they will become more sophisticated. “It will probably take a long time before the general public begins to learn that hackers and scammers are using the system for their own ends.”
How To Protect Yourself From Koobface
Besides doing the obvious – running an up-to-date antivirus, security patches, and firewalls – you should be on the look out for the following:
A sample spam message:
The malicious site:
The warning message:
You should also keep an eye on Facebook’s security page (http://www.facebook.com/security) which warns of the latest threats.
Forord: ……. og verdt hver krone. Mac er også helseforebyggende kontra den svært så irriterende PCen. Etter kun 24 timer er jeg overbevist! Lave PC priser har presset så mye reklame i PCen at bare en oppstart etter noen ukers bruk tar nesten 3-4 minutter. Tidl IBM som etter mitt syn alltid har vært rene maskiner er blitt totalt ubrukelig etter oppkjøp fra Lenovo. Så til alle dere tidligere IBMère – tiden er inne for en ny plattform. Mac er løsningen!
NB: Denne passer nok ikke alle da MAC har andre varianter for dere som vil ha x antall DVD brennere, fireline osv osv.. Denne er for dere som kjører core eller via ASP hvor ting bare må funke. Alt annet er etter mitt syn kun forstyrende..
Rudi Carlsen
Vi har lekt oss med Apples nye lekkerbisken. Macbook Air innfrir, for det meste.
Det er lenge siden en datamaskin har fått like mye oppmerksomhet som Macbook Air fikk da den ble lansert like over nyttår. Selv om Steve Jobs til tider tok litt hardt i under lanseringen, er det ikke til å se bort fra at han faktisk hadde et par gyldige poeng.
Macbook Air er da altså ikke verdens tynneste bærbare, slik Steve Jobs utbasunerte under sin presentasjon av maskinen, i alle fall ikke på sitt tykkeste punkt.
At den kanskje ikke er verdens tynneste maskin hele veien betyr egentlig fint lite, all den tid ingen av konkurrentene kan konkurrere med følelsen en får når en pakker opp og leker med en Macbook Air første gang.
Maks minimalistisk
Er det noe Apple virkelig kan, så er det nettopp design, selv om det til tider nesten kan bli litt i meste laget minimalistisk. Det er ikke bare i designet på selve maskinene Apple skiller seg ut fra mengden, også når det gjelder innpakking er de i en særklasse.
Macbook Air kommer i en sedvanlig lekker og enkel eske, akkurat som en forventer. Selskapet hevder også at de denne gangen har tenkt litt ekstra på miljøet, og derfor spart inn på emballasjen. Resultatet er en eksklusiv følelse allerede før maskinen er ute av esken.
Vi brukte en del tid på å rett og slett bare beundre maskinen før vi satte i gang. Det er ikke til å stikke under stol at en del av oss har vært relativt skeptiske til Apples nye minibærbare. All skepsisen forsvant som dugg for solen i det vi første gangen løftet opp den lettet, smekre og stilige maskinen, for så å snike seg tilbake etter noen timers bruk.
Det er nemlig lett å la seg blende av maskinens design og vekt – den er jo så latterlig tynn. For ikke å snakke om lett. Da vi viste frem maskinen i lukket tilstand var det flere som rett og slett ikke forstod helt hva det var. Med lokket nede ser nemlig Air langt fra ut som en bærbar.
I det du åpner lokket og slår på maskinen for første gang møtes du av en blendende skarp og lyssterk skjerm, et fullstørrelse tastatur og en gigantisk pekeplate.
Se flere bilder av Macbook Air her.
Lyssterk
Apple har valgt å bruke en skjerm med LED-baklys. Det gir en skjerm som er atskillig mer lyssterk enn en vanlig pc-skjerm, samtidig som den er i stand til å vise et noe bredere fargespekter.
LED bruker også noe mindre strøm enn vanlige lcd-skjermer med kald katode, noe som gir litt ekstra levetid på batteriet. En siste bonus er at skjermen også kan lages tynnere, noe som ikke er noen direkte ulempe når selskapet ønsker å lage ” verdens tynneste bærbare”.
Skjermen er for det meste svært god, enten du nå velger å bruke den til å se bilder, film eller til surfing på nettet. Om vi skal peke på noe negativt med skjermen må det være at oppløsningen til tider er i minste laget. Selv om 1280 x 800 punkter kanskje er den oppløsningen som egner seg best på en 13,3-tommers skjerm synes vi det blir litt trangt i høyden når en surfer på nettet.
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Til tross for maskinens relativt beskjedne mål har Apple klart å få på plass et tastatur i full størrelse. Det gjør det til en ren glede å skrive lengre tekster. Tastemotstanden er god, med faste og presise tilbakemeldinger.
Rett under tastaturet ligger det som må være en av de største pekeplatene vi noen gang har sett. Den er omtrent fire ganger så stor som pekeplaten på en gjennomsnittlig bærbar. Pekeplaten har dessuten fått omtrent samme funksjonlalitet som Apples Iphone.
Ved å stryke tre fingre til enten høyre eller venstre kan du bla deg frem og tilbake i nettlesere. To fingre lar deg bla opp og ned, mens en snerten vri-funksjon, hvor du roterer to fingre på pekeplaten, blant annet lar deg rotere bilder i fotoprogrammer. For mange kan tekst bli litt i minste laget på skjermen, ved å klype fingrene sammen, eller fra hverandre, kan du zoome inn og ut i blant annet nettsider og videoavspilling. Systemet er lett å lære seg, og fungerer svært bra.
Strippet for kontakter
Dessverre har Apple ofret en del for å få maskinen sylslank. Macbook Air er for eksempel bare utstyrt med en enkelt usb-port. En kan tilgi mye på en slik lett og slank maskin som dette, men å bare ha en usb-port er ikke en av tingene man kan tilgi. Det blir rett og slett altfor lite. Utover den ene, stakkarslige usb-porten er maskinen utstyrt med en mini-dvi-tilkobling, og en utgang for hodetelefoner.
 Dette er alt du får av tilkoblinger på Macbook Air. |
Utover det mangler alt man er vant til fra selv bittesmå bærbare fra andre produsentet. Selv Asus nye Eee PC, som vi testet nylig, er utstyrt med de tilkoblingene en forventer i en moderne bærbare pc. Den har tre usb-porter, nettverksplugg, modem og minnekortleser.
LES OGSÅ: Asus Eee PC: Befriende liten
Med Macbook Air har du rett og slett ikke noe annet valg enn å koble deg trådløst til nettverket. Det går som oftest greit, men selv i disse dager er det ikke alltid du har tilgang til trådløst. Da har du to valg. Du kan droppe å være på nettverket, eller du kan drasse med deg et usb-basert nettverkskort.
Velger du den siste løsningen kan det fort være en fordel å ta med en liten usb-hub også, i alle fall om du skal ha et håp om å bruke mus, minnepinne, eksterne disker eller den slags. Det er greit at maskinen er lekrere med færre tilkoblinger, men det skulle da ikke være umulig å lage en til skjult løsning tilsvarende den de eksisterende tilkoblinene er skjult i?
Det siste aberet rent teknologisk sett er mangelen på utskiftbart batteri. Den ville nok ikke sett like glatt og fin ut på undersiden, men hvor viktig er egentlig det?
Vi målte batteritiden til like i overkant av tre timer, noe som holder greit om du ikke befinner deg langt unna et strømuttak. Til lengre reiser, for eksempel en svipptur over atlanteren, blir det helt klart i minste laget.
Siden maskinen kom i salg i USA har det vært en del brukere som har klaget over unormalt lang ladetid, for noen opp mot 10 timer. Dette er ikke noe vi har merket noe til i løpet av vår tid med maskinen. Normalt sett var ladingen unnagjort på noen timer, omtrent som forventet.
Det skal visstnok være relativt enkelt å skru opp maskinen og bytte batteri på egen hånd, men det er neppe noe du har lyst til å gjøre i et trangt flysete. Du har neppe lyst til å miste garantien på den nye, dyre maskinen heller.
 Tynt, lekkert og solid. Kvalitetsfølelsen er helt klart på plass. |
Konklusjon
Designmessig er det lite å utsette på Macbook Air. Den ser lekker ut, den er lett, og den er sjokkerende tynn. Det er bare et elementer som har vist seg å virke litt lite gjennomtenkt. For selv om det meste er fryd og gammen med Air, er det et par elementer som trekker litt ned.
Det viktigste av dem er den skarpe kanten nedenfor pekeplaten. Den er ikke veldig merkbarså lenge du bare bruker tastaturet, men i det du flytter hendene litt nedover for å navigere rundt på skjermen tar det ikke lang tid før du merker at kanten skjærer litt i overkant mye i håndflatene.
I det store og det hele er vi god fornøyd med Macbook Air. Den er et blikkfang av de helt store, og tiltrekker seg mye oppmerksomhet.
Den er passe kraftig, så lenge du ikke jobber med altfor tunge oppgaver. Og sist men ikke minst er den en drøm å reise med, så fremt du har tilgang til et strømuttak eller du ikke skal reise veldig langt. Noen erstatter for en litt kraftigere og bedre utstyrt bærbar er den dog ikke. Da stemmer det nok bedre som Steve Jobs sa: “Den er perfekt som maskin nummer tre” .
Nå gjenstår det bare å se hvor mange som føler at de trenger en maskin nummer tre, og som faktisk tar seg råd til å betale en såpass stiv pris for den. Vi gjetter at maskinen kommer til å selge godt til de som i all hovedsak liker å vise seg frem på nærmeste kaffebar.
kilde: http://www.idg.no/pcworld/tester/pcogskjerm/baerbare_pc-er/article87558.ece
In the latest chapter of “response to the onslaught of reader’s requests,” we’ve decided to put the Nokia E71 and the BlackBerry Bold head-to-head. While both are totally different breeds of devices, they do share a number of similarities and are targeted to the same demographic. You’ve got two enterprise handsets with QWERTY keyboards, cameras, Wi-Fi, 3G, corporate email, great battery life, etc. Click on through to see which device wins out in this epic showdown of QWERTY gone violent.
We used some of the information from our Bold vs. iPhone post since in most cases it was exactly the same.
Design
BlackBerry Bold:
Some could agree the Bold is the sharpest and cleanest-looking BlackBerry ever to come out of Waterloo. With a complete black face, chrome border and sides, and faux black leather back, the device looks great. From all the matching chrome accents all over the phone to the simple and not confusing layout, RIM has designed a great BlackBerry which should set the bar for future devices down the road.
Nokia E71: Nokia, Nokia, Nokia…aw, who are we kidding? The E71 is one of the nicest designs to have come out of Espoo as of late. With a real metal structure (read: plastic BlackBerry Bold), great materials, and some pretty slick engineering, the E71 looks awesome. Well, except for the vicious red power button. Totally ruined it for us, Noke.
Build quality
BlackBerry Bold:
The BlackBerry Bold is built extremely well. Not including minor screen scratches and things of that nature, the Bold should be able to last you as long as you want to keep the thing. The unit is a little lighter than it looks and there no creaks or anything to get you worried about. The only negative thing we’d have to say, it that the build quality on the BlackBerry Curve slightly trumps the Bold. We’d ever go as far to say that the 8800 does too. But not the Pearl. Hell no.
Nokia E71: Again, Nokia hits it out of the park. Nokias have great build quality for the most part across the board, as do BlackBerrys, but the E71 is built like an absolute tank. Literally. We don’t think we could break this thing if we tried.
Size
The Bold is the biggest BlackBerry to be released in a pretty long time. Well, since the 8700. It is larger in every way than the BlackBerry 8800 and can sometimes feel a little hard to hold in one hand. It’s definitely no Curve. Comparing it the E71, the E71 feels much better when holding it, but since the Bold’s keyboard makes use of the larger size, we’re going to call this one a tie because of the pretty comfy Bold QWERTY.
Nokia E71: If you had to shrink 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, a camera, physical QWERTY keyboard, and other components into the smallest package possible, what would get? Most likely an E71. We don’t think the device could be any smaller, though the small size does hinder the QWERTY keyboard slightly. Everything else is well balanced, and it makes the Bold seem like this huge Dark Knight hovering over it, jealous it can’t shed a couple inches on its waistline.
Screen:
We’re sticking to the “BlackBerry Bold’s screen is the best. mobile. device. screen. ever.” line. Sorry, Nokia, but the E71s screen as decent as it is, can not hold a candle to the Bolds rich, sharp, and spaceous display.
OS
BlackBerry Bold:
This is a tricky and sensitive subject for a lot of people. Many of us live and die by the BlackBerry OS. Some could say we even know it better than we know some of our significant others… But therein lies the problem. While RIM has been on a mission to revamp the BlackBerry from the old school “pager” into an all-in-one communications device for consumers and business alike, we can’t help but wonder when the OS will get a real makeover. Not a Mariah Carey cover page airbrushed makeover, more like a Carnie Wilson 300lbs to 150lbs makeover. But, we do have to say that RIM has a great thing going. The BlackBerry minions have figured out every single tip and trick there is to squeeze every ounce of usability out the operating system, and for a lot of people, the OS is fine. It does what it is supposed to, and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just that the market has changed so drastically in the last year and half. People want to be connected more, they want to do more while doing less.
Nokia E71: S60, huh? We’d have really liked to see FP2 make it to the E71 out of the gate. Anyone that’s not a current Nokia user might have a bit of trouble dealing with access points, configuring their email, and getting around. This is a tricky subject as there are no doubt some die-hard Nokia fans, but we’d so S60 is showing its age a lot at this current point in time, just as RIM’s OS. What you do get with S60, however, is a ton of great 3rd party applications. We think you’d hard pressed to find more than 10-15 useful applications for the BlackBerry platform, whereas you have thousands for S60.
Call quality / RF performance
This has been explored before, but we find the Nokia E71 to be one of the worst performing Nokia handsets in the RF department. That compared to the outstanding reception on the Bold leaves us without too much faith that the E71 will be able to handle our daily usage in low signal areas. In terms of call quality, the Bold did a much better job at delivering us a clear and loud call, while the E71 often garbled our voice to the party on the other end. Speakerphone was the same with the Bold performing better than the E71.
Battery life
You’d be surprised, but we’ve found the Bold and E71 to go toe for toe in our battery tests. They both last longer than any other 3G device we’ve used, but to be fair, since the E71 isn’t the best RF signal holder, the Bold was on 3G more than the E71, and the E71 was rarely on Wi-Fi. We say the Bold inches out the E71 in the battery department.
BlackBerry Bold:
Listen, you can’t throw around the word “BlackBerry” without thinking about email. That’s RIM bread and butter, and we don’t see that changing for a very long time. There are probably 500 competitors vying for the title of “Best. Email. Ever.”, but they’re not coming close anytime soon. While Windows Mobile offers some of the same feature-set, there is nothing like using a BlackBerry for email. From changing your out of office message, to configuring email filters on the go (what, you think we actually get all 6,000 comments from our iPhone 3G giveaway post on our BlackBerry?), to remote searching (awesome!), RIM has perfected email on the BlackBerry for the most part. When new features like full attachment viewing and HTML get introduced, though, it gets a little murky. Instead of viewing attachments natively off the bat on your BlackBerry, RIM’s data network will compress and send you what you need bit by bit. There is also a clear separation between RIM’s BES services and BIS services, and they are totally unnecessary. There is no reason we should have the ability to view HTML on BIS, but not on BES yet (unless you hacked that in), and there is no reason file type support is so convoluted. For instance, we can listen to our voicemail MP3s on our BIS email, but not on BES because even the latest BES service pack still doesn’t support the encoding used in our MP3s. Things like this really confuse users and there’s no reason for it. BIS features should mirror BES features as much as possible and be upgraded at the same time. If we have to email an attachment from our BES to one of our BIS email accounts one more time…
Nokia E71: Email is email for Nokia. There’s no HTML support, there’s really not a lot of configurable options when using an Exchange server, and the email application isn’t the most reliable thing under the sun in general. As far as comparing it to email on a BlackBerry… well, we won’t even go there. It would take a couple more days to list all the issues and inconsistencies with Nokia’s default email application. We’re not saying it’s terrible, it is definitely usable, but it’s not something we’d like to use. Get it?
Keyboard
Another tricky subject. You’ve got the Bold which mashes up the Curve, the Pearl, and the 8800’s keyboard, and you’ve got the E71 which takes its cues from the E61i. If we could fault the E71’s keyboard, it would be that it is a little too small to use 100% comfortably. We’d also point out the stupidity of their keyboard layout once again. Get it through your heads, the “Z” key NEVER goes directly under the “A” key. That’s not how it’s done, boys. The keyboard does give you a nice response when pushed, and the keys are a bit on the hard side, but that actually works well on the phone. With the Bold, we find ourselves banging away emails like we’ve always done — that’s great. RIM didn’t mess with success here.
Corporate usage
BlackBerry Bold:
RIM has made the BlackBerry the hands-down winner for a perfect desktop extension. Pretty much whatever you can do from Outlook on your Exchange server, you can do from your BlackBerry. In addition to looking at the device specifically, RIM’s BES server offers the now standard way of managing, controlling, and deploying devices across a corporate infrastructure. Their BES servers allow IT admins to tweak and configure every possible setting, making this is the ideal solution for mid-to-large businesses and government agencies. RIM’s focus on security also make the BlackBerry the most secure device on the planet to use in a corporate environment.
Nokia E71: And dropped BlackBerry Connect again why? Not a good idea, guys. At least as far as the U.S. market is concerned. You had a device which would have been bought by the pound and used by a lot of corporate executives along with their BES, giving them an opportunity to venture outside of the immediate BlackBerry world. You now have to deal with people buying devices personally for the most part, and at + / – $500 with no discount for corporate volume purchases, it’s going to be a tough sell. Especially considering MailForExchange’s shortcomings.
Pricing:
BlackBerry Bold: The Bold’s pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s going to be in the $199-$299 price range with a two-year agreement. Or three if you’re unlucky to be a slave to Ted Rogers.
Nokia E71: The E71 is priced at $499 at Nokia stores directly, but you most likely can find it for around $420-$475 depending where you shop.
Conclusion:
It’s a little hard to put this but… we absolutely loved the Nokia E71. It was the best S60 we’d ever used. And it still is, some would argue. There is no doubt it is the finest QWERTY device Nokia has made. Don’t bring up the E90, ok? Even though we had used a Bold prior to our Nokia E71 first review, it wasn’t until we had both devices together that we really had our mind change. This is a personal opinion here, but the BlackBerry Bold smokes the E71 out of the water in so many ways. The E71 is fine as a personal communication device, but once you enter into the realm of corporate email, or even small business, for that matter, the Bold is the reigning king, and will stay that way for a pretty long time.
Tags: BlackBerry, bold, E71, Nokia, QWERTY
This week, Michael Phelps signed a deal worth more than $1 million to advertise Mazda in China. Jerry Seinfeld earned a reported $10 million to appear in Microsoft’s recent television campaign.
President-elect Barack Obama says, “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry.”
But the person who may be the biggest celebrity pitchman in the world is not earning a penny for his work.
President-elect Barack Obama has repeatedly said how much his BlackBerry means to him and how he is dreading the prospect of being forced to give it up, because of legal and security concerns, once he takes office.
“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”
What could the “BlackBerry president” charge for his plugs of the device if he were not a public servant? More than $25 million, marketing experts say, and maybe as much as $50 million.
“This would be almost the biggest endorsement deal in the history of endorsements,” said Doug Shabelman, the president of Burns Entertainment, which arranges deals between celebrities and companies. “He’s consistently seen using it and consistently in the news arguing — and arguing with issues of national security and global welfare — how he absolutely needs this to function on a daily basis.”
Mr. Obama is an ideal marketing representative, other agents say — popular, constantly in the news and explicit about his attachment to the product.
“You always want the celebrity to be a good fit with your brand, and is anybody considered a better communicator right now than Barack Obama, or a better networker?” said Fran Kelly, the chief executive of the advertising agency Arnold Worldwide, who estimated that an endorsement by Mr. Obama would be worth $25 million. “It couldn’t have a better spokesperson.”
Mr. Shabelman put the value even higher, at $50 million or more, because the endorsement is worldwide.
“The worth to a company to have the president always talking about a BlackBerry and how it absolutely is a necessity to keep in touch with reality?” he said. “Think about how far the company has come if they’re able to say, ‘The president has to have this to keep in touch.’ ”
The maker of the BlackBerry, Research in Motion, recently introduced advertising campaigns and products like the touch-screen Storm that are meant to position BlackBerry as not just a business device but a consumer product like the iPhone. The company, which declined to comment on Mr. Obama’s enthusiasm for its product, also struck a sponsorship deal with John Mayer, a popular guitarist but hardly the leader of the free world.
“The most powerful man in the country is saying, at this moment, basically, I can’t live without mine,” Lori Sale, the head of artist marketing at the agency Paradigm, which pairs actors like Adrien Brody and Katherine Heigl with advertisers. “It represents their now complete and final crossover to a device that people adore.”
Ms. Sale said that Mr. Obama had essentially participated in what is called a satellite media tour for BlackBerry by discussing the product with reporters. Just a single day of a media tour, “with the most A-list of A-list of A-list, would probably be 10 to 15 million dollars,” she said.
That he is not paid to promote BlackBerry is even better for R.I.M. “What makes it even more valuable than that is how authentic it is,” she said.
Mr. Kelly said the endorsement went both ways: while Mr. Obama was doing a lot for BlackBerry, BlackBerry had helped Mr. Obama’s image by making his message seem more relevant.
“The BlackBerry anecdotes are a huge part of Obama’s brand reputation,” he said. “It positions him as one of us: he’s got friends and family and people to communicate with us, just like all of us. And it positions him as a next-generation politician.”
Inevitably, perhaps, marketing executives dream about creating an ad featuring the president-elect, something Gene Liebel, a partner in the Brooklyn agency Huge, said would be a “fantasy assignment.”
Asked what tagline he might use for the campaign, Mr. Liebel repeated one his employees had thought up: “If Blagojevich can pick my replacement, I can pick my device.”
R. Vann Graves, the chief creative officer of the UniWorld Group, suggested a campaign showing Mr. Obama in the Oval Office. “In the foreground, you have the desk, but instead of having the proverbial red phone, you have a red BlackBerry,” Mr. Graves said, with the tagline “Shot Caller.”
Matt Reinhard, the executive creative director of DDB Los Angeles, suggested Apple try to steal Mr. Obama away from BlackBerry as a spokesman for the iPhone.
The message could be, “It’s time for change,” Mr. Reinhard said
Nobody has ever accused the folks at Altria and its Philip Morris USA subsidiary of being dummies. (A few other things, sure, but not that.) So when Altria endorsed legislation that would subject tobacco products to FDA regulation – a bill sponsored in the U.S. Senate by longtime tobacco company foe Ted Kennedy – you knew there had to be a reason.
There is. Indeed, the proposed legislation might as well be dubbed the Altria Earnings Protection Act. For starters, the bill prevents the FDA from ever banning cigarettes, but no less importantly, it makes competing with Altria much harder. The wording makes it extremely unlikely that the FDA will ever approve a new cigarette product, because the new entrant would have to be deemed “appropriate for the protection of the public health.” The bill also restores states’ ability to restrict tobacco advertising. Yet another part of the measure would require the FDA to crack down on sales of counterfeit cigarettes, which have been a drain on Altria earnings for some time.
The upshot is this: If the bill becomes law – and there’s reason to think it will, since President-elect Obama was a co-sponsor – Altria’s already safe dividend (current yield: 8.5%) will become even safer. So, too, will its earnings growth, which analysts are pegging at 8% for 2009. Throw in the fact that vice stocks are usually recession stalwarts – they’ve outperformed the S&P by an average of 12 percentage points during the past six recessions, according to Merrill Lynch – and you’ve got a defensive stock with generous upside
Steve Jobs Chairman and CEO, Apple
During
the first two decades of his remarkable 30-year career, the Apple Inc.
founder twice altered the direction of the computer industry. In 1977
the Apple II kicked off the PC era, and the graphical user interface
launched by Macintosh in 1984 has been aped by every other computer
since. Along the way Jobs conceived of “desktop publishing,” gave the
world the laser printer, and pioneered personal computer networks. As a
side gig he bankrolled Pixar, which fostered the development of the
technology and a brand-new business model for creating
computer-animated feature films.
Since returning to Apple in
1997, he has changed the dynamics of consumer electronics with the
iPod, and persuaded the music industry, the television networks, and
Hollywood to distribute their wares with the iTunes Music Store. With
his hugely successful Apple Stores, he gave the big-box boys a lesson
in high-margin, high-touch retailing. And this year, at the height of
his creative and promotional powers, Jobs orchestrated Apple’s entry
into the cellular telephone business with the iPhone.
That’s
five industries that Jobs has upended – computers, Hollywood, music,
retailing, and wireless phones. At this moment, no one has more
influence over a broader swath of business than Jobs.
–Brent Schlender
Personal Assistant London
Excellent Package A highly skilled professional Personal Assistant is required.
The successful candidate will act as PA to one partner and provide secretarial support to other team members.
The ideal candidate will be an experienced PA at director/partner level.
You should be very proactive with excellent PA/secretarial skills; Microsoft office, word, excel and powerpoint.
It is mandatory that you will have first class organisational and communication skills.
If you are interested please forward your CV to mail(a)rudicarlsen.com or call Mr.Rudi Carlsen +44 (0) 2032860166
